In the hospital

The first night in the hospital we didn’t get much sleep. We were both tired, but too preoccupied with figuring out how to hold, feed, and change her. The nurses didn’t tell us how to do anything without us asking first, and they were very helpful whenever we had questions. The next day (March 6th) flew by, with doctors and nurses coming to check on us, as well as visits from a lactation consultant and the hospital photographer. H-bear slept a lot, which we knew would not last, but it was nice for the time being.

The second night she kept us awake quite a bit. I stayed up with her for most of it, because I wasn’t sure what time we might be going home the next day, and I didn’t want D-husband to be too tired to drive. I was enjoying every minute with her, anyways.

We had H-bear’s hearing tested, which she passed, and also took her to the nursery to have some blood taken for routine newborn tests. They had to prick her heel again to take the blood, and this time she really didn’t enjoy it at all. Pretty traumatic!

I had blood drawn twice a day while we were there. During labor, some routine blood work on me showed that my platelet levels were dropping. The tests during the first day showed no improvement, and they told me that if the levels still didn’t come up the next day, they would need to keep me an extra night. Luckily, they did increase and we were able to come home the evening of March 7th.

Getting into the car seat was another traumatic experience. While we tried to get the straps over her arms, she got a big scratch on her face from one of her sharp little fingernails. Once the car started moving though, she fell fast asleep. This has been the case every time we put her in the car!

Stories about life at home coming next…